Hello friends, family, and kind hearted supporters,

I never thought I would be writing a post like this. I have read many and we have contributed to many, but it is not something you ever envision needing to do for your most loved one. I am writing this on behalf of myself and my incredible wife, Sarah. Sarah is literally the most kind, sweet, true, joyful, loving, and faith-filled person I know. Typically this time of year is one of our favorite times because we celebrate our wedding anniversary each October. This October we are about to celebrate 16 years of marriage. A marriage that remains one of the best moments of our entire lives, but unfortunately this year's anniversary is approaching during a very heavy and scary time. Unfortunately over the summer, at just 46 years old, my amazing wife was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer that has metastasized to her lymph nodes, lungs and pelvic wall. Instead of celebrating our anniversary with light hearts, Sarah is now engaged in the most critical recovery journey of her life.

The other two most amazing days of our lives were the days that saw the births of our children. Sarah was ready to be a mother from when we first met 23 years ago and it was obvious. She is the most attentive, intuitive, nurturing, real mother I could have dreamt of for our children. Together we are raising our children and are doing our best to guide them through this journey to the best of our abilities. Sarah home schools both of our children and does so with such passion, skill, and grace that I am in constant awe. We made the decision to homeschool our children together when we moved to NH about 4 years ago, and it is something that Sarah wouldn't trade for the world.

Here is a glimpse into our journey over this past year. It kicked off in January 2025 with an urgent and unavoidable hysterectomy, which took a lot of time to recover from. On the heels of her recovery, Sarah began to have GI issues in the spring, which no doctors could pinpoint the reasons for. Frustration mounted as we continued to hear the same advice from medical professionals, “…increase fiber intake” or “take over the counter meds to deal with the progressively worsening GI issues”. Sarah varied her diet, she exercised, she fought to get better but the results were not in her favor. Finally, an emergency visit to Concord Hospital in mid June revealed a tumor in her colon, creating a blockage that required immediate emergency surgery. After an intense 8 hours in the OR, we were all relieved that Sarah had come through the surgery successfully. I will never forget the surgeon coming into the waiting room to talk to me as she was being sent into recovery. He held my hand and told me of the success of the procedure and shared all of the details. I could see in his eyes that there was more to the story but I patiently listened to every word until he reached the moment when he told me that not only was the mass stage four, but they found that it had already metastasized. I couldn't breathe, I saw his lips moving but couldn't hear his words. I could only see her beautiful face. He squeezed my hand gently bringing me back to his words. I knew our journey would be long and hard but all that mattered was getting in to see her, to hold her hand, to love her and to help her heal from this incredibly intense abdominal surgery.

Fast forward to today, and Sarah is managing her absolute best as she has embarked on her chemotherapy treatment regimen along with holistic integrative therapies. Sarah gets infusions at the hospital and then has a chemotherapy drip through a pump at home for 46 hours when we return to the hospital to have the pump disconnected. I am certain any of you who know my wife will not be surprised to learn that she has already become close to her treatment nurses and gets hugs and kisses from them at each visit! This past week we walked in to find that one of them had already reserved Sarah's favorite treatment chair! She is so filled with love that she draws love to her wherever she goes and from everyone she meets.  

This first chemo cycle will end soon and Sarah will have another scan to see how well the treatment is working. Sarah and I are leaning heavily into our faith in God, finding joy in every moment we possibly can, spending as much time playing with our kids as we can, and we believe strongly in miracles. Sarah is the love of my life, she is my heart along with our two children, and this is the scariest time I have ever experienced. I tell Sarah that if my love could heal her, she never would have even gotten cancer in the first place. We are holding on tightly to what we call our, “porch swing dreams”, where we grow old together and sit on our porch swing (that we will someday build), drinking tea and watch our kids come up the driveway with our grandkids in tow. So...here is to healing, shrinking tumors, and “porch swing dreams”.

I know it goes without saying that any diagnosis of a major illness carries incredible hardships, and unfortunately our situation is no exception. We are finding ourselves in uncharted territory in every way, mentally, emotionally, financially, etc. We thank all so much for the outpouring of love, wishes, prayers, gifts, foods and other heartfelt responses that have filled our hearts with so much joy already. We appreciate you all!

With love and gratitude from our little family to yours,

May God bless you all and keep you